Project Loon in Peru

At the beginning of 2016 we were contacted by members of the “Project Loon”, another hightech project and idea of Google X, a branch of the main Google Inc. This project uses high altitude balloons placed in the stratosphere to create an aerial wireless network with up to 4G-LTE speeds. The purpose of these flying devices is to bring internet access to remote and rural areas worldwide.

Many pilots experiments have been done around the world and finally Peru was also on their country list. They looked for us because we were recommended by field logistical expert supporters in Chile and Argentina.

Our requested job was to participate and help in the field logistical matters of the first steps of this pilot project in Peru, which in summary refers mainly in the recovering of all the testing balloons flying above our country.

Balloons last about 90 to 100 days at the stratosphere level before they come back to land on a semi-controlled way. Until now, Ecologistica Peru has successfully recovered 50 balloons.

We still have more challenges ahead of us, the project is moving towards the second stage and our participation is getting strong with very good results.